I’m using an old picture of this house because it’s under renovation right now and looks terrible, with the shutters off the windows, the basement dug out and a huge tree blocking the front door. Please note that the Emancipation statue mentioned below is the one in our park, where I photographed protests for its removal last month.

Frederick Douglass and his family lived in the rowhomes at 316-318 A St. NE from 1872-1878. Douglass at age 20 escaped from slavery in Maryland, in 1838, and became a key force behind the abolitionist movement. Douglass moved to Capitol Hill in 1872 to assist in President Ulysses S. Grant’s reelection campaign and to run the New National Era newspaper. In 1874 he was named head of the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Bank. On the 11th anniversary of President Lincoln’s assassination, Douglass was the main speaker for the unveiling of the Emancipation statue in Lincoln Park, in 1876. He was appointed US Marshall for DC (1877-1881), Recorder of Deeds for DC (1881-1886) and minister resident and consul general to Haiti (1889-1891) while still remaining active as a sought-after writer and speaker, both in the US and abroad. He died in 1895.

After a time as a private museum dedicated to Frederick Douglass, these houses were sold in 2017 and are now private residences.

*****

For more information on these historic sites, go to the restoration society’s web page for the walking tour at http://chrs.org/historic-sites-tour-2020/

Best to view in "Original" because other versions resized by Pbase are decidedly unsharp.

Still here, posted earlier: